A selection device for shifting a transmission of a motor vehicle, with a rotatably mounted shifting element, which can be rotated into different shift positions, is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,295,887 B1. A potentiometer connected to the control cooperates with the operating element, so that an arrangement is created, by means of which the vehicle can be shifted in an electronically controlled manner. The device has, furthermore, a mechanical locking, which mediates a feeling of shifting to the user during shifting between the shift positions. In addition, a mechanical engaging contour is provided, which can block or release shifting over between certain shift positions.
A different number of shift positions may be desirable in different vehicle models, so that different lockings and engaging contours must be created as well. Different selection device must therefore also be made available for different vehicle models, so that the number of variants of this selection device is limited.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,904,823 B2 discloses a haptic selection device for a vehicle, with a selector lever mounted pivotably about two axes of rotation and with two actuators, which are coupled with the selector lever via belt drives and can apply forces to this. Furthermore, sensors, which are designed as optical decoders and by means of which the rotations of the shafts can be sensed, are coupled with the actuator shafts. A processor can read the signals sent by the sensors, determine the gear selected by the selector lever, and shift the vehicle into the gear via a control system. Furthermore, the processor can determine forces from the sensor signals and send these via actuators to the selector lever. In particular, it is possible to recreate a locking for the selector lever by means of the forces, and a force profile may be stored in a memory.
Based on the complicated mounting of the selector lever and of the two belt drives, the mechanics of this selection device is relatively expensive and is similarly bulky as a purely mechanical selection device, so that a selection device of a mechanically simpler and less bulky design still continues to be desirable.
A sensing mechanism for a control head mechanism is known from DE 200 14 425 U1, which belongs to a different class, wherein a control head is coupled with a drive shaft of an actuator, on the underside of which a coding disk is mounted, and wherein the control head position is scanned during a working motion of the coding disk by a measuring sensor. A microprocessor can read the sensor signals, calculate corresponding forces from these signals and send corresponding control signals to the actuator. The actuator transmits the forces to the control head.
This sensing mechanism belongs to a different class and is not intended or designed for shifting a vehicle transmission.